WALTHAM - His cyber-name was "Meat," said prosecutors, the handle they said he used as a dangerous sex predator who prowled the Internet for girls.

But the lawyer for Edward Sadowski, 58, of Coventry, R.I., said at his client's arraignment yesterday in Waltham District Court that "Meat" was just a computer screen name and that his client was a loving and harmless church deacon.

Sadowski was charged yesterday with statutory rape, attempting to rape, pose nude, and disseminate sexual materials to someone he thought was a 14-year-old girl he chatted with on the Internet.

Sadowski was arrested at the Super 8 Motel in Watertown after planning to meet her, but was met instead by an undercover State Police trooper, said Julie Ross, a prosecutor with Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly's high-tech and computer crimes division.

Ross said that on July 12, Sadowski visited a chat room called "Little Girl Sex Chat" and contacted the undercover officer, who was posing as the girl. He contacted the trooper several times over the following two weeks, Ross said.

"They talked about meeting and they talked about sex," said Ross. "The nature of the chat and e-mails indicated that he wanted to have a sexual encounter with the person."

"During that time, the defendant indicated that he wanted to come to the Boston area for the purpose of having sex with the 14-year-old girl," Ross said. She said Sadowski also e-mailed nude photographs of himself and pornographic pictures to the trooper.

Judge Gregory Flynn ordered Sadowski held on $10,000 bail, denying the defense's request that he be released on personal recognizance because he had no prior convictions.

"The nature of the charge is significant," Flynn wrote in court documents. "The defendant does have close ties to his community in Rhode Island but no ties in Massachusetts."

Flynn did note that Sadowski's reputation in his Rhode Island community was considered "good" and that he had family ties.

Sadowski's attorney, Richard O'Reilly, said, "All the indications that I have [show] . . . he's an upstanding citizen in his community."

The Diocese of Providence released a statement saying that, "in keeping with diocese policy, [Sadowski] will not be functioning as a deacon pending the outcome of the investigation. We pray for Edward and his family."

State authorities told the court they consider Sadowski a flight risk because when he was arrested, he had already made plans for a trip to visit Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.